Technical Field
The invention relates to providing risk management services for technology needs. More particularly, the invention relates to managing technology needs with a risk management policy that is established for individual policy holders, as well as by automatically monitoring risk, adaptively re-calculating risk, and determining a premium for the risk management policy.
Description of the Related Art
There is a trend toward greater reliance upon technology. Also, consumers demand that such technology be both functional and available. Furthermore, there are greater combinations, permutations, and interrelationships of technology. These interrelationships include both technology-technology interrelationships as well as human-technology interrelationships.
The increase in interrelationships creates a greater statistical probability of technology unavailability, as well as technology functional failure. Put simply, use of, and reliance upon, technology has increased while the risk of unavailability, misuse, and failure of such technology has grown.
Unavailability of technology oftentimes forces a business or organization to either replace or repair the technology immediately. Replacement and repair costs are oftentimes themselves considerable. However, there are additional and significant costs associated with downtime and loss of productivity that go along with unavailability of technology. Moreover, the failure of a single technology can have compounding effects due to technology-technology interrelationships.
Although technology support and servicing can be a very significant cost to an organization, many organizations take a reactive approach to technology unavailability rather than proactively planning for unexpected technology unavailability.
Previous approaches attempting to provide proactive planning for technology failure are old-fashioned and do not address modern technology systems. For example, some cell phone users carry insurance on their handset. However, typical cell phone insurance only covers replacement of the handset in the event of destruction, loss, or other irreparable damage to the hardware. Accordingly, the cell phone user is without recourse if the software on the handset renders one or more other functions inoperable.
Likewise, the technology service industry itself is outdated and does not provide solutions needed to address modern technological problems. Common technology service approaches include fee for service on a time and material basis, service on a flat fee basis, warranty service, extended warranty service, and bundled services. However, these approaches are far from comprehensive. For example, a typical technology service plan does not cover costs associated with removal of outdated technology or training employees to use a new product.
Accordingly, there is a need for risk management policies that provide a policy holder with an interactive interface, automatically monitor risk, adaptively re-calculate risk, determine a premium, and resolve technology needs.